Francine Raymond trusts the Italians when cooking her home-grown
vegetables

When I asked my friend Nicola Gooch – who has just produced and directed the hugely successful BBC Two programme Two Greedy Italians – what it was that made Italian food so wonderful, she reminded me that they really appreciate good ingredients: “An Italian housewife will reject the pallid-looking tomatoes in her local shop and walk that extra mile to find full, ripe, red ones with an intense perfume. She also has the confidence that comes from using recipes which have been tried and tested through generations.”

One way we can borrow a little of this good taste is to grow seeds that have their roots in Mediterranean cuisine from Franchi Seeds of Italy, which, for seven generations, has been selling to those same discerning housewives.

The charming and enthusiastic Paolo Arrigo started marketing his generous envelopes of seeds in delicatessens and food shops. He understood that vegetable seeds have as much to do with the kitchen as the garden, and the varieties he chose were those proven in Italy and produced by his company since 1783. I started stocking Franchi products in my shop in Suffolk 10 years ago and grew them in my kitchen garden. I was amazed at their high germination rate and mouth-watering flavours that took me back to my five-year sojourn in Milan in the Seventies.

Now, as a gardener, the Franchi catalogue is the one I most look forward to receiving every year. The company stocks more than 25 indigenous varieties of tomato seed alone, along with 14 types of basil. I love the fact the pumpkin seed I’m ordering is the same one Paolo’s Aunt Angelina has always used to make jam. I long to preserve food with the Bormioli range of bottling equipment.

Perhaps we all need to get back to the security of our roots. Italians are particularly lucky in having rich history, a strong and still-vibrant peasant community plus a dollop of sunshine. I want to bring that sunshine into my garden – and our climate is becoming more and more similar to that of alpine Italy, where these seeds originate.

As a nation, we need to talk more about the food we grow and eat. Not just special-occasion food, but everyday fare. Italians live for food, as Nicola discovered while researching her programme, featuring chefs Antonio Carluccio and Gennaro Contaldo travelling the country, cooking and examining their heritage.

“Where the British discuss the weather, Italians talk about food. A mother will ask her adult son what he ate that day, a taxi driver will ask his passenger what he has just eaten.” As gardeners, we can develop that same passion by carefully selecting vegetable, fruit and herb seed that delivers flavour, rather than just the large, high-yield traditional varieties we’re all tempted by.

As cooks, we need to know how to cook these varieties. Paolo Arrigo’s book From Seed to Plate is full of simple, seasonal recipes handed down by his family, such as ribollita (plant the ingredient seeds from now on) and melanzane alla Parmigiana (aubergines in season and available now).

Visit Franchi Seeds of Italy’s garden, Italia Gastronomica, promoting regional vegetable varieties from all over Italy, at Hampton Court Flower Show from July 5-10 (www.rhs.org.uk) and try some of their seeds.

They mostly originate in the mountainous parts of Italy, producing hardy varieties that do well in this country. Paolo has selected a collection of vegetables that can be planted now, ready to grace your table later in the season. Delizioso!